
God's Choice
Pope Benedict XVI and the Future of the Catholic Church
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Narrated by:
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George Weigel
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By:
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George Weigel
About this listen
When John Paul II lapsed into illness for the last time, people flocked from all over the world to pray outside his apartment. He had become a father figure to millions in a world bereft of strong paternal examples, and those millions now felt orphaned. After more than 26 years of John Paul II's guidance, the Catholic Church is entering a new age, with its bedrock traditions intact but with pressing questions to address in a rapidly changing world. Beginning with the story of John Paul's final months, God's Choice offers a remarkable inside account of the conclave that produced Benedict XVI as the next Pope, drawing on George Weigel's unrivaled access to this complex event.
Weigel also incisively surveys the current state of the Church around the world: its thriving populations in Africa, Latin America, and parts of the post-communist world; its collapse in western Europe; its continued struggles in Asia; and the vibrancy of many aspects of Catholic life in the United States, even as the Church in America struggles to overcome its recent experience of scandal.
Reflecting on John Paul II's greatness, drawing on first-hand interviews to paint an intimate portrait of the new Pope, and boldly assessing the Church's current condition, God's Choice is an invaluable book for anyone seeking to understand the Catholic future and the larger human future the Church will help to shape.
©2005 George Weigel (P)2005 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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Witness to Hope is the authoritative biography of one of the singular figures - some might argue the singular figure - of our time. With unprecedented cooperation from John Paul II and the people who knew and worked with him throughout his life, George Weigel offers a groundbreaking portrait of the Pope as a man, a thinker, and a leader whose religious convictions defined a new approach to world politics - and changed the course of history.
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NOT Unabridged
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Since resigning from the papacy in 2013, the first pope in more than 700 years to do so, Pope Benedict has lived quietly in a convent in the Vatican gardens in Rome. He has devoted himself to a life of prayer and study and has vowed to remain silent, until now. So much controversy still surrounds Pope Benedict’s time in office - in this book, written with best-selling German author Peter Seewald, he addresses the issues of his papacy and reveals how, at his late age, governing and reforming the Church was beyond him.
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A perfect book
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In Lessons in Hope, George Weigel tells the story of his unique friendship with St. John Paul II. As Weigel learns the pope "from inside", he also offers a firsthand account of the tumult of post-Vatican II Catholicism and the Cold War's endgame, introducing listeners to the heroes who brought down European communism. Later, he shows us the aging pope grappling with the post-9/11 world order and teaching new lessons in dignity through his own suffering.
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Review of Lesson’s in Hope
- By Anonymous User on 11-26-17
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The Catholic Church is on the threshold of a bold new era in its two-thousand-year history. As the curtain comes down on the church defined by the 16th century Counter-Reformation, the curtain is rising on the Evangelical Catholicism of the third millennium: a way of being Catholic that comes from over a century of Catholic reform; a mission-centered renewal honed by the Second Vatican Council and given compelling expression by Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.
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The saints, the heroes of the Roman Catholic faith, lived lives of holiness, dedicated to serving God. The saints lived at different times in different places throughout history, but they all shared a love of God that has been documented through the teachings of the Church. Today, the saints serve as examples for all Catholics, showing the believers how to lead a more spiritual life. Catholic devotions are particular customs, rituals and practices of worship or in honour of the saints that are in addition to the liturgy of the Catholic Church.
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The reader is important!
- By Anonymous User on 06-09-21
By: St. Francis de Sales, and others
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The Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) was the most important Catholic event in the past five hundred years. Yet sixty years after its opening on October 11, 1962, its meaning remains sharply contested and its promise unfulfilled. In To Sanctify the World, George Weigel explains the necessity of Vatican II and explores the continuing relevance of its teaching in a world seeking a deeper experience of freedom than personal willfulness.
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Fails to see how Vatican II broke with tradition
- By Amanda S on 12-20-24
By: George Weigel
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Witness to Hope
- The Biography of Pope John Paul II
- By: George Weigel
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- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Witness to Hope is the authoritative biography of one of the singular figures - some might argue the singular figure - of our time. With unprecedented cooperation from John Paul II and the people who knew and worked with him throughout his life, George Weigel offers a groundbreaking portrait of the Pope as a man, a thinker, and a leader whose religious convictions defined a new approach to world politics - and changed the course of history.
-
-
NOT Unabridged
- By Dr. Michael Anthony Novak on 03-03-20
By: George Weigel
-
Last Testament
- In His Own Words
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- Length: 7 hrs and 2 mins
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Overall
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Performance
-
Story
Since resigning from the papacy in 2013, the first pope in more than 700 years to do so, Pope Benedict has lived quietly in a convent in the Vatican gardens in Rome. He has devoted himself to a life of prayer and study and has vowed to remain silent, until now. So much controversy still surrounds Pope Benedict’s time in office - in this book, written with best-selling German author Peter Seewald, he addresses the issues of his papacy and reveals how, at his late age, governing and reforming the Church was beyond him.
-
-
A perfect book
- By John A. on 11-29-21
By: Pope Benedict XVI, and others
-
Lessons in Hope
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- By: George Weigel
- Narrated by: Jim Meskimen
- Length: 12 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Lessons in Hope, George Weigel tells the story of his unique friendship with St. John Paul II. As Weigel learns the pope "from inside", he also offers a firsthand account of the tumult of post-Vatican II Catholicism and the Cold War's endgame, introducing listeners to the heroes who brought down European communism. Later, he shows us the aging pope grappling with the post-9/11 world order and teaching new lessons in dignity through his own suffering.
-
-
Review of Lesson’s in Hope
- By Anonymous User on 11-26-17
By: George Weigel
-
Evangelical Catholicism
- Deep Reform in the 21st-Century Church
- By: George Weigel
- Narrated by: David Cochran Heath
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Catholic Church is on the threshold of a bold new era in its two-thousand-year history. As the curtain comes down on the church defined by the 16th century Counter-Reformation, the curtain is rising on the Evangelical Catholicism of the third millennium: a way of being Catholic that comes from over a century of Catholic reform; a mission-centered renewal honed by the Second Vatican Council and given compelling expression by Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI.
-
-
The Life I Have Tried To Live
- By Gil Michelini on 04-05-14
By: George Weigel
-
The Ultimate Catholicism Collection: The Writings and Prayers of Great Catholic Saints
- Introduction to the Devout Life, True Devotion to Mary, The Interior Castle, Lives of the Saints, Ascent of Mount Carmel, The Dialogue of St. Catherine of Siena, & The Spiritual Exercises
- By: St. Francis de Sales, St. Louie de Montfort, St. Teresa of Avila, and others
- Narrated by: Museum Audiobooks Cast
- Length: 69 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The saints, the heroes of the Roman Catholic faith, lived lives of holiness, dedicated to serving God. The saints lived at different times in different places throughout history, but they all shared a love of God that has been documented through the teachings of the Church. Today, the saints serve as examples for all Catholics, showing the believers how to lead a more spiritual life. Catholic devotions are particular customs, rituals and practices of worship or in honour of the saints that are in addition to the liturgy of the Catholic Church.
-
-
The reader is important!
- By Anonymous User on 06-09-21
By: St. Francis de Sales, and others
-
To Sanctify the World
- The Vital Legacy of Vatican II
- By: George Weigel
- Narrated by: Steven Arthur
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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In this beautiful spiritual travelogue, New York Times best-selling author George Weigel leads listeners through the historic streets of Kraków, Poland, introducing one of the world's great cities through the life of one of the most influential Catholic leaders of all time.
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Amazing
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
When he was elected pope in the fall of 1978, few people had ever heard of the charismatic Karol Wojty³a. But in a very short time he would ignite a revolution of conscience in his native Poland that would ultimately lead to the collapse of European communism and death of the Soviet Union. What even fewer people knew was that the KGB, the Polish Secret Police, and the East German Stasi had been waging a dangerous, decades-long war against Wojty³a and the Vatican itself.
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Insight into Pope John II the Great
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Throughout much of the 19th century, both secular and Catholic leaders assumed that the Church and the modern world were locked in a battle to the death. The triumph of modernity would not only finish the Church as a consequential player in world history; it would also lead to the death of religious conviction. But today, the Catholic Church is far more vital and consequential than it was 150 years ago.
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Well written and considered book, bad narrator
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Benedict XVI: A Life offers insight into the young life and rise through the Church’s ranks of a man who would become a hero and a lightning rod for Catholics the world over. Based on countless hours of interviews in Rome with Benedict himself, this two-volume biography is the definitive record of the life of Joseph Ratzinger and the legacy of Pope Benedict XVI. This first volume follows his early life, from his days growing up in Germany and his conscription into the Hitler Youth during WWII to his career as an academic theologian and eventual archbishop of Munich.
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Okay for some purposes
- By ReviewAmazon384 on 08-23-21
By: Peter Seewald
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Performance
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In 2007, Joseph Ratzinger published his first book as Pope Benedict XVI in order “to make known the figure and message of Jesus”. Now, the Pope focuses exclusively on the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life as a child. The root of these stories is the experience of hope found in the birth of Jesus and the affirmations of surrender and service embodied in his parents, Joseph and Mary.
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In Jesus and the Jewish Roots of Mary, Dr. Pitre takes listeners step-by-step from the Garden of Eden to the Book of Revelation to reveal how deeply biblical Catholic beliefs about Mary really are. Dr. Pitre uses the Old Testament and ancient Judaism to unlock how the Bible itself teaches that Mary is in fact the new Eve, the Mother of God, the Queen of Heaven and Earth, and the new Ark of the Covenant.
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Now I Want To Know More...
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Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In recent years, Christians everywhere are rediscovering the Jewish roots of their faith. Every year at Easter time, many believers now celebrate Passover meals (known as Seders) seeking to understand exactly what happened at Jesus' final Passover, the night before he was crucified. Jesus and the Jewish Roots of the Eucharist shines fresh light on the Last Supper by looking at it through Jewish eyes.
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I am a Protestant trying to learn more about the significance of the Eucharist and I feel that my eyes have been opened up ..
- By Kim Lank on 03-08-18
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The Case for Jesus
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- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 7 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Over the past hundred years, scholars have attacked the historical truth of the Gospels and argued that they were originally anonymous and filled with contradictions. In The Case for Jesus, Brant Pitre taps in to the wells of Christian scripture, history, and tradition to ask and answer a number of different questions, including: If we don't know who wrote the Gospels, how can we trust them? How are the four Gospels different from other Gospels, such as the lost Gospel of "Q" and the Gospel of Thomas?
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Pitre Debunks Bart Ehrman
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The Lamb's Supper
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- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Of all things Catholic, there is nothing that is so familiar as the Mass. With its unchanging prayers, the Mass fits Catholics like their favorite clothes. Yet most Catholics sitting in the pews on Sundays fail to see the powerful supernatural drama that enfolds them. Pope John Paul II described the Mass as "Heaven on Earth," explaining that what "we celebrate on Earth is a mysterious participation in the heavenly liturgy."
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My Lord and My God - I'm home at last!
- By B on 05-26-12
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Your Life Is Worth Living
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- Length: 14 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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For over four decades, Fulton Sheen was the face of Catholicism in America and literally received hundreds of thousands of letters from people around the world in search of truth, faith, salvation, and spiritual guidance. In this new reissue of one of Sheen's classic works, the Emmy Award-winning priest takes an intimate look at our sacred journey to God and answers some of life's most profound questions.
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Profoundly Good.
- By The Phil on 10-12-19
By: Fulton Sheen, and others
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The Lord
- By: Romano Guardini
- Narrated by: Gordon Greenhill
- Length: 26 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Story
The only true and unedited telling of the life of Christ - his life and times,in historical context, but not lacking the psychology behind his physical being and spirit. Unlike other books seeking to strip Jesus' story to reveal only the human being, Romano Guardini's The Lord gives the complete story of Jesus Christ - as man, Holy Ghost, and Creator. Pope Benedict XVI lauds Guardini's work as providing a full understanding of the Son of God away from the prejudice that rationality engenders.
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A masterpiece
- By Michael Gemborys on 01-06-17
By: Romano Guardini
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2,000 Years of Papal History: The History of the Popes, the Papacy, and the Catholic Church
- By: John W. O'Malley
- Narrated by: John W. O'Malley
- Length: 14 hrs and 28 mins
- Original Recording
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Internationally best-selling author, renowned professor, and the dean of American Catholic Historians, Fr. John O’Malley presents his monumental course on the papacy. This masterpiece series covers the most fascinating history in the Western world. Now, you can trace the amazing history of the papacy, the oldest still-functioning institution of any kind in the Western world in 36 erudite lectures.
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Wonderful Narration!
- By Bob Bortolin on 01-11-20
By: John W. O'Malley
Critic reviews
"Magisterial....Authoritative....An exemplary book." (Booklist)
What listeners say about God's Choice
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jj
- 03-18-13
it does great for getting background
Would you consider the audio edition of God's Choice to be better than the print version?
if you're looking for a biography on Pope Benedict, you should probably look elsewhere. Biscuits in the details of the selection process. It also gives extensive background to the climate and the overall condition of the church as well as the papacy he inherits. that is followed by some educated speculation of what his papacy will consist of. a good amount of the book is just review of his other book witness to hope.
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- Marco Paschkewitz
- 06-21-19
Great insights into the pope Benedict
Great book to better understand the working of the Catholic Church. Also good insights into the pope Benedict
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- John
- 02-04-13
Interesting
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes I would.
As a practicing Catholic it seems important to no about the head of my church.
What was the most compelling aspect of this narrative?
The most compelling thing is having a love of my church and all it stands for and the transition from a true leader to another.
Which scene was your favorite?
the funeral of the prior Pope and the Conclave to bring in the new one.
If you could give God's Choice a new subtitle, what would it be?
Transmission of a Spiritual Leader
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